Teaching the money concepts I wish I had learned earlier!

Welcome! The Adventure Begins…

Hi! My name is Libby and I really appreciate you reading! A quick bit of background about myself. After getting my MBA, I’ve spent the last 5 years in the corporate world, and while I love my day job, I have a passion around personal finance and especially the area of teaching personal finance basics to those in high school and college. This site is a passion project for me and one I’m incredibly excited to build!

My goal with this site is simple: I want to talk about all the things I wish I had known about money when I was younger. Experience is a great teacher and it’s my goal for others (especially those in high school, college and early 20’s) to learn from mine and others’ experiences and avoid many of the common pitfalls related to personal finance.

I’m struck by the fact that if I had known and put into practice a few key principles around spending and saving, I’d have more money saved, I’d have spent less money on things I didn’t need and would be closer to financial independence. All in all, I would have fewer financial regrets.

I’m so grateful to the wonderfully knowledgeable personal finance bloggers, podcasters and authors out there who opened my eyes and set me on the journey towards financial independence. I’d love to continue that teaching and sharing of knowledge by focusing on how high schoolers, college students and recent college grads can embrace some basic ideas around thoughtful spending and saving, and planning towards future goals. I’d love to help those in their teens and 20’s avoid some of the most common financial regrets.

When I graduated high school (and even college) I had no idea what a 401K was, and my understanding of money management didn’t extend too far beyond having a savings account and tucking away birthday checks into it (my mom’s idea, not mine, though I was so grateful for it later on!). When I started working, and I learned about the concept of retirement savings I thought that it surely was something for people older and smarter than me – something I would figure out later.

And while I later learned about 401Ks, and saving for retirement and house down payments, the basic principle I needed to most learn was to spend thoughtfully so that I could save money for my future self and my future goals. It’s incredible to me that from the time students finish up high school till around the time they graduate college, they’re actually making some of the biggest financial decisions of their whole life – decisions that will follow them for years or even decades down the road.

The thing is – the overwhelming majority of students report that they don’t feel prepared for those decisions. Decisions including where they go to college, whether they take on student loans, whether they work during college, what they major in, what kind of career they pursue, the type of lifestyle they live – all of these things add up to huge decisions that will impact their future selves for years to come. I think, unfortunately, we’re failing students both at school and at home, and sending them out into the world unprepared to make these important decisions. I’m hoping I can help be a resource here.

My goal is to help simplify and demystify the way that we think about money and the way we act on money and make these principles relatable to a younger audience. I’m so excited to get started, and appreciate you reading!